


Eye of The Pool

by natigail



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Eye of the Storm, Fluff, Gen, Insomnia, M/M, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Season/Series 02, Sleep Deprivation, Swimming Pools, Team as Family, The Pool Scene, a tad of pining, basically i just wrote what i imagined might have happened during the cutaway scenes, my mind kept nagging me to write an extended scene with how they got out the elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 09:49:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10988451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natigail/pseuds/natigail
Summary: Going to the pool had seemed like a good idea until Keith got stuck in the elevator with Lance of all people. Fighting Zarkon seemed less complicated than working out how they'd get out of there while Keith had to bash away inappropriate thoughts.





	Eye of The Pool

**_Season 2 - Episode 5 - Eye of the Storm_ **

_From Keith's perspective with the extended elevator and pool scenes_

“We’ve got to put some distance between us and Zarkon. This could be the fight of our lives.”

Shiro isn’t wrong. Lately, every fight seems to potentially be the fight of their lives. After accepting to become Paladins, they risk their lives by just existing. Keith had accepted that and he is confident that Shiro felt the same, as did the Alteans evidently, but he can’t help but wonder for the rest of his team.

He had never been a team player in his whole life. He isn’t an orphan by choice but he’d become friendless on purpose. If he didn’t let anyone close, then he couldn’t be hurt. He couldn’t quite figure out how he then ended up fighting alongside six brave individuals, who became more like family than teammates with each passing day. Maybe the universe is playing a private joke on him.

“Keith, Lance, let’s lay down some covering fire,” Shiro orders.

A smirk plays on Keith’s lips by instinct. He knows how to fly and fight. It’s the only thing he’s any good at. They’ve just come off a difficult fight but the adrenalin courses through his body, momentarily shaking it alert anew. He activates his defense drone with ease.

The whole fleet is staring down at them and this is bad but Keith reacts like he does most times and just throws himself into the fight. Everything quiets around him and he focuses on the enemy while staying aware of his teammates in his peripheral view. He tries not to dwell on when he started looking out for somebody beside himself.

“Lance, incoming. Twelve o’clock hot,” Pidge warns the Blue Paladin.

“Got it,” Lance says with that cocky edge in his voice that he uses when he taunts and challenges Keith as well.

They aren’t exactly too close to Lance yet and the fighter pilot could probably handle it but Keith finds himself flinging his drone sideways, knocking into Lance’s and taking out the target.

“Hey!” Lance protests loudly and Keith can practically feel the glare Lance shoots towards his chair.

“Sorry, gotta be quick,” Keith says as an explanation. He doesn’t need to reveal that he enjoys taking Lance down a peg. That boy thinks he can walk on water and sometimes Keith thinks he just might. Also, Keith has trouble letting go of control and actually trusting someone else to take care of things. He’s never really been able to depend on someone before.

Relinquishing control always seemed entirely impossible but lately, his stance had started to change. His team showed him time and time again that they did in fact have his back. That didn’t mean that old habits would be killed that quickly after having had Keith in its claws for his whole life.

“How’s that for quick?” Lance growls and then bangs his drone into Keith’s.

Keith never did well being taunted and Lance has this way of getting under his otherwise thick skin. Keith blames that glare in his eyes.

“You…” he grumbles.

The fight and the fact that the universe potentially hanging in the balance is momentarily forgotten as Keith retaliates and the sounds of drones repeatedly knocking together are all he can hear.

“Knock it off, you two. Stay in your zones!” Shiro interrupts and Keith’s hands still, immediately refocused and a little embarrassed. He shouldn’t allow anything to make him lose focus, not even Lance’s childish games.

“Yeah, Keith!” Lance shouts behind him and Keith fights his instincts to turn around and scowl at him.

The spirits in the Castle is running low and Keith feels worry prickling in the back of his neck when Hunk seems unable to focus long enough to check the defenses. They’re all too tired for this battle.

“Everything’s a blur. I’ve been up too long. I have tired eyes,” Hunk complains and had it been anyone else, Keith would have let a sharp remark leave his lips but Hunk is the embodiment of a cuddly teddy bear.

“I know we just came off an intense battle but we’ve got to stay focused, just until we jump,” Shiro says and Keith wants to follow his commands but the team is so worn down.

“And when is that?” he finds himself saying without meaning to and his words are cold and harsh. He shouldn’t be speaking like that to Shiro but his temper gets the better of him sometimes.

Thankfully, Allura has a brilliant idea of using a planet’s gravity pull that allows them just enough advantage to get away from the fleet and make it through a wormhole. They don’t make it through unscathed though. They have to exit out of the wormhole earlier than planned, Allura collapses with exhaustion, Coran is worried about some of the mechanics inside the wormhole generator and he is sweating intensely, which might be some old-man Altean virus.

Shiro is usually entirely composed but Keith notices the tension he holds in his shoulders and how his eyes gravitate towards the princess almost as on instinct.

“All right. Since Zarkon has no idea where we are, this is the perfect time to focus on our next step. Maybe we can find that secret group, the Blade of Marmora.”

Keith perks up at the mention of the Blade. He still hasn’t told anyone about discovering the link between the knife he has from his parents and the secret organization. He’s not sure what it means yet and he’s not ready to share it with anyone. Secretly, he’s terrified it might be the reason Zarkon seems able to track them down so quickly. He gets lost in his thoughts without meaning to.

“I’m so tired, my brain’s not working,” Pidge confesses, crawled up on their chair and sounding utterly miserable. The protectiveness sets in again and Keith almost opens his mouth to tell Shiro that the team needs rest.

“Yeah, neither is mine,” Lance says and Keith’s eyes scan his teammate quickly. Lance’s posture is slack and heavy but he’s usually hunching presumably because of his tallness.

Coran pops up on screen, having made it down in record time. It’s more bad news, potentially life threating bad news and Keith wonders how many more beatings they need to take.

“All right. We’ll hide the ship and get some rest while Coran comes up with a work-around. Tomorrow, we’ll be sharper and refocused.”

Keith breathes out when Shiro finally agrees that it’s time for a rest. Everybody could use it. Something twists in Keith’s gut though because his insomnia has been the worst it’s ever been over the past couple of weeks. He never used to sleep much, just a three or four hours is enough to keep him functioning, but he’s been struggling to go to sleep at all. Hiding a knife with a mysterious symbol, which might be the reason the universe’s bad guy is tracking you and your friends down will do that to you.

In fact, they all seem too wired to head straight for bed like they probably should.

“You know, the ship has a pool if you want to relax a bit. You might be too tense to fall straight asleep,” Allura tells them and if Keith isn’t mistaken, her glance lingers on him a little longer. She couldn’t have noticed that he’d be up simultaneously later and earlier than everyone else? Perhaps his lion told her, he’s been spending some of the time bonding with her.

Huffing out something non-committal, Keith makes his way back to his room. Swimming a few rounds does indeed sound nice. He always liked swimming when he was younger. The always weightlessness seemed to calm him. Perhaps that’s why he miraculously hasn’t freaked out the too-many times he’s been ejected into space. Thankfully, Red always comes to his rescue.

He changes into the swimming trunks in his drawer and wonder how all these matching sets of clothes came about. Obviously, the actual Paladin suits belonged to the previous Paladins but did all the other red-themed clothes he now owns as well? He shakes the thought but find his fingers linger over his jacket for a moment.

It’s his favorite and knowing it’s one of his only human clothing items with him makes his chest constrict just a bit. He inwardly scolds himself for almost getting sentimental over a piece of clothing when others have it so much worse. How horrible must it be for Hunk or Lance who have families back on Earth? Or Pidge who still doesn’t know where Matt and their father is?

Forcing down the worries for his teammates, he focuses on something else. His hair is a mess and as much as Lance likes to tease him about his “mullet”, Keith usually keeps it styled. It looks horrible after having been sweat through numerous times but Keith doesn’t want to bother with a shower if he’s heading for the pool. A little self-conscious, he puts the towel over his head rather than around his shoulders.

He makes it back into hallway and sees the elevator start to close. As a reflex, he shoots his hands out catching the door just barely. There’s a vague sound on the other side of the door and they pull back to reveal a shirtless and very tired looking Lance.

“Huh? What the heck do you think you’re doing?” Lance asks but there’s not the bite he usually uses when he speaks to Keith. He seems defeated, his shoulders hunched forward. He’s in swimming trunks too, adorned with blue rather than red and a towel rests on his shoulders.

It doesn’t take more than a quick glance to take in his lean frame and tanned skin, which looks smooth to the touch. If it wasn’t for the scowl on Lance’s face, Keith might have indulged the idea to reach out, just for a moment to see if it’s as soft as it looks.

“Allura said there’s a pool. I’m gonna go check it out. What do you think you’re doing?” he responds but his words lack their usual bite too.

He feels exposed like this. He feels more skinny than strong, even if he knows that while his muscles looks nothing like Shiro’s, they’re still there. He knows it’s the same with Lance but he can’t help but clench his teeth at how small and vulnerable they both look. They’re so young and fuck, who thought it was a good idea to appoint someone their age to be defenders of the universe?

Lance’s frown dissipates from his face and the other boy sighs.

“Same thing,” Lance says, even if it should be obvious with their matching “outfits”. Keith wants to curse his luck that Lance would heed Allura’s suggestion as well. There goes the much needed solitude. It’s a lot to be around people all day but surely they can figure it out. There’s no law that says they have to be at each other’s throats all the time. Lance sounds just as tired as Keith feels.

“Look, you stay on one side of the pool and I’ll stay on the other and we’ll be far, far away from each other,” Keith says, staring straight ahead at closed elevator door. “Very… far… away,” he adds for emphasis.

Lance doesn’t get to respond before the whole elevator jolts and startles them. They both look towards the celling as the lights go out.

“Hm?”

“Uh…”

Of course, this had to happen now. The elevator had to malfunction while they were inside of it. Together. Because it’s definitely in Keith’s best interest to be trapped with Lance out of all people… right. The universe definitely has it out for him.

He sighs and somehow it syncs when a sigh escapes Lance too.

“You don’t think that the Castle is turning against us again?” Lance says, and his voice is laced with trepidation.

Keith remembers the training droid turning against him and finding Lance about to be sucked out into space without his suit on. He’d have died if Keith hadn’t managed to press the button and reach in to grab his hand. Keith remember the strength he had to use to pull himself and Lance back inside of the ship while gravity was pulling them harshly towards certain death.

“No, it’s probably just malfunctioning,” Keith says in what he hopes is a reassuring way. He doesn’t like the dark too much and he can feel how his breathing is turning more and more shallow as the moments without light passes.

“Yes, we can’t have the same thing happen twice. The lights should be coming on any moment, right? The whole Castle took quite a beating and it’s probably just because of that we got stuck,” Lance says and sounds more annoyed than freaked out now. “Hey, buddy? You okay there?”

Keith clears his throat and pours hostility into his words. It’s far better than vulnerability.

“The lights aren’t turning on. We get out of here on our own,” Keith decides.

He was pretty sure that he saw a hatch at the top of the elevator. Then they can get into the shaft above them and make it to the next floor.

“Get on your knees,” Keith tells Lance, who seems to make some recoiling motion, even if he can’t see anything in the pitch black.

“What?” Lance squeaks and he doesn’t sound so tired or annoyed anymore.

“There’s a hatch at the top of the elevator. If we can get out on top of the elevator, then we can make our way up to the next floor,” Keith explains. He’s not used to explaining his plans, he usually just goes ahead and does them.

It normally works out okay and when they’re out there fighting in the lions, they have whole or partial mind-melt anyway.

“Or… we wait for the thing to get back online. The team will notice that we’re missing soon enough,” Lance reasons.

“Why would they look for us? We’re all taking some down-time to recover, idiot.”

“Hey! You better be nice,” Lance grumbles. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”

Keith could kiss Lance for agreeing because he feels the anxiety in his chest and he needs to get out of this small dark space. It’s bringing up some very unpleasant memories from his childhood, even if Lance’s annoying bickering is helping to keep them at bay.

“Do you want to be on top or should I?” Keith asks to be more polite than last time but Lance groans in what sounds like annoyance and possible embarrassment.

“Dude, can you not?”

Keith feels like this is one of those times where Lance would tell him that he’s being oblivious and needs to work on his social awareness. He’s just sure why.

“You’re shorter,” Lance comments and it’s voiced partly like an insult but comes off a bit too soft to accomplish its goal. “Give me your hand.”

Keith is suddenly happy that they’re covered in darkness because he isn’t sure what kind of expression he’s pulling right now. He reaches his left hand forward and Lance fumbles and knocks into it multiple times before taking proper hold.

Keith can hear Lance moving and there’s a gentle tug on his hand, which he follows cautiously. Lance seems to be guiding him behind the boy now kneeled in front of him.

“Legs over the shoulders, let’s go,” Lance says as he puts Keith’s hand down on his shoulder.

Keith freezes for a second because Lance’s skin is so soft. How does the boy even manage to have this smooth skin in space? Does he moisturize? They’re standing closer now and Keith can also detect a sweet aroma that seems to linger on Lance’s skin.

Trying to turn his brain off before it goes down a very inappropriate road, he swings his legs over either side of Lance, who stands up so quickly that Keith has to grab onto his head.

“Watch it,” Keith barks and then gets an unwelcome flashback from the first time they flew in Blue.

He’d been searching for Blue months on end without knowing what he really was searching for. It was just this energy calling out to him; only it hadn’t been his to claim. Keith had finally found Shiro and when he went to save him Lance had been there, insisting on being the one to save Keith’s friend. And it had been Lance in the caves that had made the markings glow. Blue had been Lance’s lion all along, which made Keith question why Blue had called out to him at all. It had been different with Red, who was much more stubborn at accepting him but flying her felt right and like coming home.

Flying in Blue for the first time had been a horrifying experience and Keith distinctly recalls calling Lance the worst pilot while clinging on to his pilot chair and shoulder not to get thrown against the side of the cockpit.

“Can you reach it?” Lance asks while putting his hands on Keith’s shins to stabilize his swaying. Keith shakes his head slightly and forces the thoughts of their first proper meeting out of his head.

He reaching up and traces his fingers around the surface almost losing hope until he finally finds an edge. He pushes upwards and it gives way and he pushes it aside. Light bathes the small elevator and Keith’s body responds like it is oxygen and he’d just been buried.

“Think I could convince you to jump?” Keith asks in a low voice as his eyes readjust to the light.

Lance grumbles something in Spanish, like he usually does when he doesn’t want Keith to overhear or if he’s just reacting impulsively. Keith feels the body beneath him dips slightly and then shoots up and Keith gets a good hold of the edge and pulls himself up.

Keith feels like someone is staring at him but dismisses it quickly because the only thing visible to Lance right now is Keith’s ass. He gets to his feet on top of the elevator and his heart sinks just slightly. There’s no cables, just smooth sides and it’s so far up to what seems like the next floor.

“Quiznak,” he curses under his breath.

“Are you going to leave me down here, Keith?” Lance calls out, voice laced with something that isn’t solely annoyance.

“No,” Keith deadpans because he’d never leave someone behind. He knows what it feels like to be left behind and he wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. Even if being abandoned by your parents and being stuck alone in an elevator is quite different.

Keith gets on his stomach and reaches a hand down as far as it’ll go and Lance reaches up with quite ease and grasps around his finger tightly. Damn that boy and his long limbs. Keith is granted another unhelpful flashback to the time he pulled Keith from air lock. However, without the threat of eminent death it’s more difficult to ignore how they’re essentially holding hands.

Keith yanks Lance upwards without too much trouble and quietly thanks all the hours he spends training. Keith puts a hand on Lance’s shoulder to stabilize him as he fumbles out to the roof of the elevator.

Lance looks up and sighs, probably thinking the same Keith did when he saw the smooth edges and lack of cables or anything to grab hold off.

“This just keeps getting better and better. Back to back?” Lance suggests and shoots Keith a small, almost hesitant smile.

It’s far from gleaming flirting smile Lance usually showcases but the innocence of it feels like a sucker punch to the gut. Not that Lance had ever directed the flirty charm at Keith and he isn’t sure whether he appreciates it or hates it.

“It seems that’s our best option,” Keith agrees and gets behind Lance and moves his arms to catch the other boy’s.

“We need to move together,” Lance says and he sounds slightly breathless and it’s an odd sensation to be able to feel the rise and fall of Lance’s breathing against his own back.

“We go right foot and then left foot and keep an even pressure against our backs. Got it?”

“Don’t you boss me around, Keith,” Lance grumbles and shoves a little harder than he needs to as they get plopped up against the wall. Surprisingly, they move rather well together. Keith’s almost impressed that they can put their bickering aside for this.

However, it seems to be an endless shaft and suddenly when Keith reaches out with his left foot, he’s unable to reach the side. They slide down until the catch against each other. Keith had felt Lance going slightly lax against his body but he didn’t want to bring it up. However, the slight slide makes his annoyance flare up.

“It’s right, then left. You’re off,” Keith complains.

“You’re off!” Lance says as if Keith offended his grandmother and not his coordination. “And showing too hard!”

This earns Keith a rough shove forward and he tries to give Lance a glare, even though he’s fully aware he can’t see him.

“You’re not shoving hard enough!” Keith counters and shoves Lance right back. And to think it had been going so well. They both hang against each other, feeling defeated for a beat. None of them wanted to be in this situation.

“I should be at the pool right now!” Lance whines and Keith twists his head to watch Lance, who practically hangs his head and looks down beaten. Maybe it makes Lance feel just a bit sorry for the boy who was probably exhausted beforehand but he doesn’t know how to deal with whining. It’s not something that ever did any good.

“Would you stop whining?” he says and looks up and spots something. “Huh? Look!”

“Huh?” Lance responds and follows Keith’s vision to the small hatch not much further up.

They share eye contact briefly, both taking note of the dark circles they’re sporting and then makes a silent agreement. Keith even catches a small smile playing on Lance’s lips. They’ll work together without bickering or trying to shove each other. They fall into the rhythm and Keith keeps his eyes tainted on the hatch on his side. Once they reach it, he leans back slightly to glance at Lance.

“I’m going to kick it,” he says. “And then I’ll have to pull you along with me quickly or you’ll fall. You ready?”

Keith feels Lance’s arms and shoulders tense against him, and he doesn’t kick the hatch in just yet.

“You’ve got me right, mullet?”

The nickname is a new one and Keith’s breath catches. “I’ve got you, Lance. You’re part of my team,” he says and then kicks before Lance can have time to notice how his voice went soft without his permission.

He doesn’t like Lance. Lance is loud, obnoxious, attention seeking, he gets on his nerves, he taunts him constantly, he thinks they’ve got some sort of rivalry, he’s annoying smart, attractive and he knows it, and a better pilot than Keith is willing to admit out loud.

Keith’s grip on Lance’s arm is so tight that he’s slightly worried Lance might have a light bruise tomorrow. As soon as they’re in another shaft going downwards, Keith lets go of Lance but he can hear him right behind him.

Lance is kicking up a fuss, clearly not thrilled with falling down a shaft but Keith is calm. He can do this action better than having to work together with Lance in a dark and confined space. Then Lance starts fully screaming which only grows as they near what might be the end of the shaft based on the light.

The fall into the pool room and unfortunately doesn’t land in the water to break their fall. By some small mercy, however, they don’t end up on top of each other, as the mere thought of it makes Keith’s ears burn. Keith’s tailbone might be bruised though and Lance’s knees and hands suffer some abrasions.

They get to their feet and Keith pulls the towel around his shoulders. Never mind his hair now. However, as they look around something seems very off about the poolroom. The pool is floating upside down.

“What the heck?” Lance shouts and sounds like he’s ready to march out and find Allura and complain about the Castle’s facilities.

Keith sighs and wonders how he expected any better. “Stupid Altean pools,” he mutters under his breath.

“So much for a relaxing swim. I should just have gone straight to bed,” Lance says and shakes his head.

“Why didn’t you?” Keith finds himself asking because they’ve gone through too much to just leave the pool immediately.

Lance stiffens and then glares at Keith as if the question is a trap. Keith just shrugs. He usually feeds his curiosity by just watching with a keen eye but he figured he could ask Lance a simple question after their whole elevator ordeal.

“I… I thought it would relax my muscles,” Lance confesses. “I feel like I’m constantly…”

The way Lance is fidgeting catches Keith’s interest but the boy doesn’t seem inclined to go on. Keith isn’t one to pressure people to talk about personal stuff because he’d hate if they did the same to him.

“Alright,” Keith just says and the silence settles over them.

Lance isn’t one to let it stay silent ever. He’s always running off his loud mouth and perhaps that’s one of the reasons that Keith appreciates him. Keith has been alone in a long time and while the silence is comfortable, it can also be deafening and suffocating. Lance is always smiling, talking nonsense but his whole presence takes up a room and forces Keith’s mind to stay present instead of crawl off to the dark corners of his mind.

“I guess… This rivalry between us, you know? You’re good, Keith, and it’s difficult keeping up. And you don’t trust me to handle myself out there. I thought doing something more productive than snoring would be a step in the right direction.”

Keith doesn’t know how to respond to that. They aren’t really rivals, if they even were at some point other than in Lance’s mind. However, Keith can’t deny that he enjoys the banter and the challenges. Lance keeps him alert and pushes him to be better.

“I’m not that great, Lance,” Keith says and he panics a little because he did not plan for those words to leave his lips. He blames it on exhaustion and being around Lance’s blabbering mouth for too long.

“Keith, you know you are. You’re the best pilot then and probably still now,” Lance says with something akin to tenderness. “You and your mullet kick ass.”

“I wanted to go for a swim because I can’t sleep. I have trouble with insomnia. That’s the only reason you’ll find me on the training deck so much, Lance. I can’t sleep.”

Keith should definitely rein it in or attempt a joke or a snarky remark. This talk is all getting a little too real for him.

Lance doesn’t say anything, which almost makes it worse but then it doesn’t. They actually just stand in silence shooting each other the occasional glance. The confessions hang in the air and it feels like something shifts slightly between them. They’re both sporting tired eyes and post-battles heaviness but it feels like they’ve gotten to know a bit more about each other.

There’s been a lot of that going on ever since they became Paladins. Keith can hardly recognize them from before they stepped into Blue and this crazy adventure began.

Suddenly, the whole room seems to tilt and they’re underwater and gasping for breath before being thrown from the water onto the ground yet again. Keith winces as his tailbone gets abused again.

The adrenalin washes tiredness away and they’re running as fast as they can find their legs. Something is wrong and they are needed. Groggy limbs and confessions laid bare can wait. Now they need to do what they do best.

It’s Zarkon again, which hardly seems possible.

“They found us again? How is that possible? It that possible? That doesn’t seem possible!” Lance babbles as he gets into his seat. He always does that when he’s nervous and Keith understands why.

The Castle is in a bad shape right now, maybe unable to create a wormhole and they have no idea how Zarkon is tracking them so fast. His mind goes to the knife tugged away in his room but he can’t do anything about it right now. Maybe later but right now he needs to focus on the fight. The third fight in what is probably just two hours.

“Right now, we must figure out a way to get out of here,” Allura says sensibly but everybody can hear how her voice is on edge.

Keith is tired of running. It won’t do them any good if Zarkon and his fleet will just track them to the next location with the same ease. They’ll have an endless cat and mouse chase until the mouse breaks apart and is left defenseless.

“Or we can stay and fight. Now’s our chance. Form Voltron. Enough running,” Keith says and he can feel Lance’s eyes on him but he doesn’t know what the Blue Paladin thinks of his suggestion.

“It’s too dangerous!” Allura says with finality.

“Allura’s right,” Shiro says and frankly, Keith isn’t surprise that he takes her side. “We can’t take on Zarkon and his entire fleet. Remember what happened at Zarkon’s command center. We wouldn’t have escaped if the Blade of Marmora hadn’t shut down the shield.”

Of course, Shiro actually has a proper reason and even takes time to explain his reasons in the heat of battle. Keith admires him for that and it’s one of the many things that make him a great leader and a valued friend.

Coran finally admits to have caught the Altean virus and apologizes. Pidge makes off to go help him and Keith and Lance launch their defense drones again. It feels like a lot has happened in the hour since they did this before.

Keith allows himself to look back at Lance and shots him a smirk while nodding his head, Lance mimics the action and they turn their attention to their drones.

“Lance, there’s a fighter advancing on your nine!” Keith shouts as he sees the impending attack in his peripheral. He doesn’t make a move to interfere this time.

Contrary to what Lance thinks, Keith does absolutely trust him to handle himself. Lance has proved himself to the team time and time again and while he gets fool hearted at times too, he’s surely a great and capable pilot.

“Thanks for the heads-up! And you’ve got one going for the lower barrier,” Lance shouts right back and there’s passion and warmth in is voice as he maneuver his defense drone.

“Good eye!” Keith praises because he hadn’t spotted that one yet. He probably would have a second later but out here every second makes a difference. You learn that the hard way.

“Okay, buddy, you’re mine,” Lance seems to say to himself only to then make a noise of distress. “What’s going on? I lost control of my defense drone.”

“I got you covered!” Keith says immediately but as he tries to steer his drone, it cuts out. “Uh, I don’t got you. Oh, there must be a system failure.”

“Nope that was us,” Pidge says from the monitor. “We’re diverting power from non-essential systems to get the wormhole generator working.”

“Shooting bad guys is pretty essential!” Lance complains and actually stands up and raises his hand threateningly.

Keith suspects it the helplessness of being unable to do something that Lance doesn’t like.

“The wormhole is open!” Shiro exclaims but Keith and the others still hold their breath.

The ship makes it into the wormhole but they’re out other the other end much too soon for Keith’s liking. However, there’s never really a quiet day in the Castle and they will take small victories where they find them.

He looks backwards at Lance.

“Great teamwork, Lance. Thanks for having my back.”

“Of course, I’ve got you, Keith. You’re part of our team,” Lance says back with worlds that ring fairly familiar and Keith realizes they are very similar to the once he said in the elevator shaft.

There’s not really time for mushy emotions and confessions in their kind of lives though, and they have to focus on the new challenge in front of them and the fact that Zarkon might be hot on their trail again.

Still, Keith makes sure to commit to memory Lance saying his own words back at him while looking almost fond. 

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written a Voltron fic before but I hope you liked it. I watched the two first seasons over like five days and immediately fell in love with the show. Especially Pidge, Keith and Lance wormed their way into my heart. Let me know your thoughts and I hope I managed to keep them quite in character and sorry if you wanted them to get together. I love their ship and see them getting together in the future (maybe even canon by some stroke of magic) but in my mind they aren't at that stage yet in the beginning of season 2. Maybe I'll write more of them in the future?
> 
> Find more of my stories under my profile or at https://www.wattpad.com/SecretNRB & http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. Come talk to me @natigail on Tumblr or use the comment section below.


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